Co-design in transdisciplinary research projects (Jahn et al. 2012) is associated with various challenges for the actors involved. The different interests and perspectives of the scientific actors as well as the practitioners should be uncovered and integrated to develop a common transdisciplinary research question. Here, Pearce and Ejderyan (2020) distinguish between (a) content-oriented and (b) process-oriented challenges.

As support to meet challenges at the beginning of a transdisciplinary collaboration, such as (a) inclusion and visualization of different perspectives on a topic or (b) establishing a good quality of communication, we, the TD-Lab of the Berlin University Alliance, have developed the TransImpro workshop format. This applies improvisational theater techniques to reveal and integrate the plurality of perspectives, expertise, personal references and values of the participants. Using exercises adapted from improvisational theatre, participants are encouraged to draw out their respective implicit knowledge through associations and enter into lively interaction with each other. Central to this is the positive reference to others inherent in improvisational theatre through the basic attitude and application of the initial sentence "Yes, and ..." (Richter 2022). This communication emphasizes and acknowledges the strengths of each other while building onto another person’s storytelling. Besides, improvisation requires active listening and can thereby enhance collaborative working.

Our 90-minute training at ITD 2024 will introduce the TransImpro workshop format with its aims, methods and results. Above all, participants will be given the opportunity to experience the potential of improvisational theatre for transdisciplinary by means of a practical exercise.

After a short introduction to the TransImpro workshop format, the participants will get to know and use the improvisation technique collaborative storytelling with "Yes, and ...". After this, participants will reflect on their experiences in relation to the question of what improvisational theatre can achieve in the co-design phase of transdisciplinary research and on conclusions they can draw for their own research.

Jahn, T. / Bergmann, M./ Keil. F. (2012) Transdisciplinarity: Between mainstreaming and marginalization. In: Ecological Economics, 79, 1-10.

Pearce, B.J./ Ejderyan, O. (2020): Joint problem framing as reflexive practice: honing a transdisciplinary skill. In: Sustainability Science, 15, 683 – 698.

Richter, D. (2022): Improvisationstheater. Band 1: Die Grundlagen. Theater der Zeit, Berlin.